Dear Doctor:
Before the Christmas season dissolved into a yearly morass of greeting card exchange, gift-giving one-upmanship and orgiastic corporate profit frenzies, it had a much simpler meaning – peace on earth, good will toward our fellow man and woman. To celebrate a universally pivotal moment, a day was set aside to honor the principles demonstrated by the best, or one of the very few best, examples the world has ever known.
Why has it become so farfetched to think that one could live a life of kindness and unselfishness, of pure love, and of infinite gratitude for what we’ve been given? Have we become so cynical, or so exhausted, that we can no longer see the possibility? Is it so hard to imagine ourselves all getting along, in harmony, prosperity and joy?
To me, the real meaning of Christmas has little to do with Madison Avenue and the social pressures that have been installed on the weeks leading up through the holiday season. My opinion is that the way you live throughout the year gives you the opportunity to proclaim the rightness of your life on this special day. More than turkeys and pies, trees and presents, Christmas offers you a chance to declare who you really are – a person of character, of consistency with natural and spiritual law, and of love.
It makes no sense to me to live any old way all year, and to expect good performance at Christmastime to somehow make up for it. How about exemplifying the Christmas spirit throughout the year, when no television commercials are reminding you, when others aren’t rewarding you, just because you know it’s the right way to be?
Let me say that I really do love all the festivities, the lights, the music, and the great display. I love giving and getting gifts, and I especially love everyone being nice to each other. It just hurts to think that it takes a fabricated atmosphere, designed to capitalize on the season and bring a handsome return, to bring our attention back to what we should be thinking about daily anyway – how to do good, how to make the most of our spirituality, how to love each other, and how to be the best we know how.
Until we decide to adopt those qualities we festoon proudly in late December, to use them in our everyday lives, Christmas will remain a commercial extravaganza. Once again, I like a good time as much as the next person, but I’d like to see a concerted effort on our parts to make peace on earth, good will toward man a year-round reality.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
PS Our new seminar is loaded with fresh ideas to attract and educate patients, and kick off the new year right – to register or for more information about our events in Chicago, LA and metro-NY-NJ, please go to www.themasterscircle.com or call 800-451-4514.
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